Many staff of the National Assembly yesterday failed to show up at work
despite the expiration of the 2-day Christmas break given by the
federal government.
The government had announced December 25 and
26 as public holiday for the Christmas celebrations, while January 1,
2019 would be for New Year break.
Civil servants and private workers were expected to resume work yesterday being December 27.
Our
correspondent who was at the National Assembly premises from morning to
afternoon yesterday observed that only few staff and security men were
present at work.
Some policemen, personnel of the Nigerian
Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), men of the sergeant-at-arms as
well as officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) were seen
performing their functions.
There were also other support staff
such as cleaners, bankers, journalists, among others that were seen at
the National Assembly premises.
It was further observed that even
the few civil servants that turned up for work left the premises of the
National Assembly before close of work.
109 senators and 360
members of the House of Representatives had on December 20 embarked on
about one-month Christmas and New Year break to resume on January 16.
However,
the lawmakers’ break does not affect the civil servants working at the
federal legislature. The National Assembly boasts of about 3,000 civil
servants, but only few of them were sighted at work yesterday.
A
staff said that most of the staff have travelled out of Abuja and that
they might not return until January, when the lawmakers are expected to
resume.
Attempts to get the Director of Information at the
National Assembly, Mr Rawlings Emmanuel Agada, to react to the
development failed as he could not be reached on phone.
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